There was a slight jarring though the whole frame of the coach, a
grinding and hissing from the brakes, and then a sudden jolt as the
vehicle ran upon and recoiled from the taut pole-straps of the now
arrested horses. The murmur of a voice in the road was heard, followed
by the impatient accents of Yuba Bill, the driver.
"Wha-a-t? Speak up, can't ye?"
Here the voice uttered something in a louder key, but equally
unintelligible to the now interested and fully awakened passengers.
One of them dropped the window nearest him and looked out. He could see
the faint glistening of a rain-washed lantern near the wheelers' heads,
mingling with the stronger coach lights, and the glow of a distant open
cabin door through the leaves and branches of the roadside. The sound
of falling rain on the roof, a soft swaying of wind-tossed trees, and an
impatient movement on the box-seat were all they heard. Then Yuba Bill's
voice rose again, apparently in answer to the other.
"Why, that's half a mile away!"
"Yes, but ye might have dropped onto it in the dark, and it's all on the
down grade," responded the strange voice more audibly.
The passengers were now thoroughly aroused.
"What's up, Ned?" asked the one at the window of the nearest of two
figures that had descended from the box.
"Tree fallen across the road," said Ned, the expressman, briefly.
"I don't see no tree," responded the passenger, leaning out of the
window towards the obscurity ahead.
"Now, that's onfortnit!" said Yuba Bill grimly; "but ef any gentleman
will only lend him an opery glass, mebbe he can see round the curve and
over the other side o' the hill where it is. Now, then," addressing the
stranger with the lantern, "bring along your axes, can't ye?"
"Here's one, Bill," said an officious outside passenger, producing
the instrument he had taken from its strap in the boot. It was the
"regulation" axe, beautifully shaped, highly polished, and utterly
ineffective, as Bill well knew.
"We ain't cuttin' no kindlin's," he said scornfully; then he added
brusquely to the stranger: "Fetch out your biggest wood axe--you've got
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